


afterschool

by ethaeriyeol



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Coming of Age, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, High School, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27036682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ethaeriyeol/pseuds/ethaeriyeol
Summary: A group of boys witness various experiences in their lives as they encounter love and friendship during their high school years in the 1990s.
Relationships: Jung Sungchan & Osaki Shotaro, Liu Yang Yang/Everyone, NCT Dream Ensemble/Everyone, Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas/Reader
Kudos: 3





	afterschool

**Author's Note:**

> This is an excerpt from days gone by, because I’m still sort of hooked in that fic that I decided to release this part that I was supposed to put in between the main plot. Some parts were inspired by NCT Dream’s MFAL mv, I really thought about that mv right away when I was planning to have dreamies in the fic. Sooo, enjoy! :D

**_March 1997_ **

“Hey, Renjunnie! You make me sad; this poster looks amazing! Much like the one we had for the organization chart last year. Now, I miss our seniors,” You said while you were looking at the poster Renjun created for your club’s annual year-end event.

“Stop flattering my brother so much baby, he’ll never stop bragging about it from now on,” Lucas said, teasing his younger brother.

“Hey, Renjun! Let’s start putting those up later. Around 3 PM, let’s start on the second floor alright?” Haechan approached Renjun.

“Why the second floor? Shouldn’t we start at the top first?”

“Professor Kim’s class is on the second floor around that time. She’s in their class later, right Jisung?” Haechan asked Jisung and responded to a nod, he was too focused on playing with his game boy.

“Wait, you still have a crush on Professor Kim?” you asked the two boys.

“Well yeah! Why would we stop having a crush on her y/n?” Renjun asked.

“Well Professor Kim is ma-“ Jeno and Jaemin barged in, swinging the door open making you jump out from your place.

“Well let’s get started on putting those up, shall we?” the two boys said in unison and they left carrying the pile of posters.

“Here she comes, let’s go Renjun!” Haechan and Renjun rushed to the bulletin board as they placed up the posters. A smart, elegant, stunning woman stood beside the boys, staring at what they were posting.

“Hello Haechan, is this the DNYL event next month?” she asked.

“Y-yes ma’am! We’d be glad if you come,” Haechan replied.

“It’s gonna be fun Professor Kim!” Renjun added, they both beam a smile at the lady.

“Thank you boys, we’ll see about that soon,” Professor Kim spoke before leaving. They were fascinated by the presence of Miss Kim, their freshmen year professor in Chemistry.

“S-she remembered my name,” Haechan felt like he was in a cloud nine that moment, hearing his crush say his name that sounded like angels singing at him.

“As she should! She is a professor don’t you think? But she agreed to come when I asked her,” Jeno and Jaemin cut Renjun’s moment right after that, when the four of them stared at Professor Kim with a grin on their faces.

\-----

“For this experiment, everyone will be working by pairs. I will let you guys choose your own this time,” Professor Kim said first thing in the morning. A unison of low groans can be heard inside the classroom, leaving no choice but to do what they were told.

“Hyung, let’s pair up. I don’t want to fail this subject just because of this experiment. Y/n will nag me for sure,” Jisung asked Yangyang who’s sitting beside him, begging with his puppy-eyes putting his hands together in front of his face.

“How about Chenle? Who’ll be his partner then?” Yangyang asked. The boy in front of them has been silent since the class began, scribbling on his notebook, and not paying attention in class.

“Uhmm, that girl!” Jisung squinted his tiny eyes and scanned the whole room, searching for a particular person as he pointed to the student that caught his attention.

Everyone in the room has their partner, excluding Chenle, and the girl in the front row. No one chose to team up with her because of her threatening glares and hurtful comments, she just can’t shut up and say anything any time she wants to.

“Who doesn’t have a partner yet?” She asked, rising from her seat, looking around. They were all quiet and avoided making eye contact with her, then she saw Chenle who was still clueless about what was going on in the room. She made her way to the boy, snapping her finger in his face.

“Got no partner yet?” She asked Chenle straight-facedly as she turned her head a little to the side waiting for his response. Chenle, looking into the distance and unintentionally dribbling on his notebook, came to his senses when the girl appeared in front of him. Still waiting for a response, she peeped at his notebook to see what he was really busy with.

“Are those my name written in your notebook?” She pointed to the notebook that he was writing in. Chenle covered the notebook with his hands immediately, avoiding eye contact with the girl. The entire class yelled, _‘ohhh’_ s right after that, leaving the boy more tense. Jisung and Yangyang giggled behind Chenle, realizing how awkward their friend could be at the moment.

“Chenle, you pair with her. You’re the only one left,” Professor Kim cut out the teasing as she explained the experiment. The class ended and Chenle is still embarrassed about what happened earlier, he can’t seem to focus especially on Chemistry.

“How’s Chemistry? Did Professor Kim attend your class today?” Haechan seemed eager to ask the boys about Chemistry when they meet in the cafeteria after class. He, Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin looked at the three freshmen.

“Of course she did, she never missed lectures on us,” Yangyang replied.

“Ahhh, as expected to Professor Kim. She’s the best,” Renjun commented. The other three agreeing as they shook their head in unison, looking like those bobble-headed figures in the car.

“How lucky of you guys to be in a class of Professor Kim, you’ll seldom have a beautiful professor like her,” Haechan added.

“She’s smart and beautiful, what more can you ask for?” Jaemin said.

These Juniors have been crushing on Professor Kim since Freshmen, they took Professor Kim’s Chemistry class as well and that’s when they knew each other. They became close friends right away and began to simp for a lovely professor. They almost failed the subject just because they couldn’t focus on listening to her lectures, but since Professor Kim is kind to her students, she passed all of them.

“Have you forgotten how Professor Kim can be scary too?” Jisung said, earning an objection from his hyungs.

“She isn’t scary at all. How can a person that beautiful look scary? Have you seen her sparkling eyes? Her sweet smile?” Renjun said.

“Oh, I fell on my sit the first time I saw her back then,” Haechan said, earning a laugh from everyone.

“Yeah, I remember that! We even tried to snatch her mug after drinking on it,” Jeno added, Yangyang made a dubious face of the four of them as they started to chuckle. The discussion about Professor Kim continued until a girl stood in front of their table, holding her tray as she stared at Chenle. They saw the girl’s appearance suddenly, and the bursts of laughter quickly broke, and they were all quiet.

“Hey uhmm Chenle, we need to talk about the experiment. Are you free later?” She confidently demanded, everybody at the table was shocked at her daring gesture. How would someone younger than them be bold enough to approach someone right away. The girl was waiting for Chenle ’s response, but the boy seemed to be frozen by the unexpected arrival of the girl. Jisung nudged his shoulders to his hyung, and Chenle can only nod in response. “Okay cool, I’ll meet you in the lockers on the first floor then,” then she left.

They didn’t stop teasing the timid boy until the end of the class, when Chenle met the girl the same day, they left the two of them and went to eat at Moon’s Diner. It’s been routine for these kids to spend the afternoons at the dinner, chatting nonstop about their favorite game boy games and the comics they’ve been collecting. A day will never be the same without a taste of Taeil’s amazing burgers.

“Hey Yangyang, isn’t that Professor Kim?” Jisung asked his hyung when a familiar figure got out of a car. The rest of them glanced back at the door, almost as the meerkats were looking synchronously for the next predator. They didn’t leave their eyes when Professor Kim walked in, so their eyes became wider and their jaws fell as a guy accompanied her. They took a seat on the other side of the room, looking at the menu. They noticed that the man put his arms around Professor Kim’s shoulder, and that he was all sweet and lovely to the woman.

“W-wait who is that guy?” Jeno asked, sipping the remaining smoothie in his cup. Eyes still focused on the couple from the other table.

“Don’t tell me they are ma-“ Haechan couldn’t finish his sentence, not accepting the realization that came into his mind. Yangyang looked into the window and saw Professor Kim’s car, it has a ‘baby on board’ sticker on its rear. He called out his hyungs’ attention, pointing at the car. They don’t need any response after, feeling so sullen of a sudden.

“You didn’t know?” Jisung asked his hyungs, then shook their heads together. Jisung felt terrible for his hyungs, as if their universe had crumbled upon finding that the lady of their dreams belonged to someone else. Just then, Chenle rushed to their table, dumbfounded. Jisung told Chenle everything, making him laugh constantly.

\-----

“Just go approach her!” Jisung whispered to his older friend, as they stood behind the lockers. They were waiting for the girl to finish her game. Chenle decided to ask her as his date for the upcoming prom, turns out things went well after that Chemistry experiment. Now Yangyang and Jisung decided to help him to ask her after their class in PE, Yangyang served as the lookout while Jisung became the support system of the nervous boy. The girl already finished her match as she heads her way to the locker room. Yangyang signaled the boys and they left Chenle to hide behind the door.

“You can do this hyung!” Jisung cheered before leaving. Chenle held the red rose on his hand, trembling. He’s never done this before; he wants to know more about her and he took the prom as a chance for it to happen. He can’t stand being this nervous, so Chenle decided to leave the rose in the locker of the girl but he was too late.

“Chenle, is this for me?” she called him out before he could even open the door. He looked back after, eyes looking at the floor, scratching his nape. The girl took the rose and giggled at the gesture of the boy. She went near Chenle and tilted her head to look at the boy in his eyes. He looked back and is still nervous, but he smiled right away after seeing her smile at him. “What’s this for? Are you asking me to be your date at the prom?” he nodded bashfully.

It’s her character that made Chenle admire her, not everyone in the class has seen her the way Chenle did. Despite the strong exterior character, Chenle knew she is more than that. He wasn’t wrong after spending time with her for the experiment, they bonded well after and realized they were wrong about her. Until he realized he’s been crushing on her already.

“I’ll accept your invitation, but you need to answer this question first,” she said, the boy waited for her question. “When you did FLAMES on our names back then, in Chemistry class. What was the result?” she asked. She still remembered that day when she asked him to be her partner for the experiment. She saw him write hers and his name and did FLAMES. Chenle got embarrassed at her question, he didn’t know how to respond because of the result of that game.

“U-uhhh, it says we’re enemies,” he shyly said, looking down again on the floor. She can’t help but giggle once more.

“You’re cute,” she said, Chenle felt frozen on his spot when he heard her. “Well, I think you spelled my name wrong. But I know that FLAMES isn’t right, I feel like we’ll be more than that,” she added. Chenle felt like being shot by arrow lots of times, he can’t even utter a single word. How can she attack him with her words like that, she never fails to surprise Chenle every single time.

“Prom night, it’s a date. Alright?” she said before leaving. Yangyang and Jisung cheered from behind the door after hearing their whole talk.

\-----

**_August 1997_ **

“Hey Jeno, don’t be nervous come on. It’s not like y/n didn’t train you well to handle DNYL,” Jaemin cheered the guy beside him as they sit and wait in their booth. Another school year has begun, and the cycle never ends, seniors will graduate, and the younger ones will take over.

Just like Jeno taking your position as the new president, Jaemin as Vice President, Renjun as Treasurer, Yangyang as secretary, Chenle as a historian, your brother Jisung as the artist, and Haechan remained as the event executive. Haechan has used his great social skills in recruiting new members and for organizing events well.

“I just don’t want to ruin the foundation our seniors made for this club, I want to do great as well,” he said. The nervousness isn’t evident on his face as he greets students passing by their booth and reaching out a flyer at them, beaming his eye smiles.

“Hey uhmm Jeno, one of my friends would like to join the club. I told him to drop by here,” Chenle’s girlfriend said as she and Chenle welcomed the group in the booth. “He’s uhmm quite tall, like a tree I’d say, he’s even taller than you,” she pointed Jisung as she tried to describe the guy she’s talking about. “I forgot his name, its quite a unique one,”

“Hey guys, I’d like you to meet our new member,” Haechan ran towards their booth with excitement, still panting breaths from the run he took. Beside him is a good-looking student. “Guys, here is Shotaro, he’s my classmate in Junior year,” he then pointed to the other guy. He does look cute, just like what Haechan commented, his eyes disappear when he smiles just like Jeno’s.

“Oh, there he is!” Chenle’s girlfriend called out to the guy she just mentioned. The guy handed over an application form, all eyes are on him as they looked up at his face realizing how tall he really is. It took them a few minutes before they snapped back into reality, taking the form off his hands.

“Hi everyone, I’m Sungchan, I’d like to join your club if you wouldn’t mind,” he said, rubbing his hand onto his nape bashfully.

“It’s very much fine… Sungchan!” Jaemin responded, checking his name the second time just to make sure he heard it right.

“Welcome to DNYL, we’re glad you guys joined us. It’s gonna be a fun school year,” Jeno said as they welcomed the two new boys.


End file.
